You can find nice leather sofas and well made furniture.  

The very basics would be getting your furniture and shopping list together, keyless entry like Schlage (with backup lockbox with physical key very close as well), looking into insurance, local taxes for STRs, and moreAlot of ways to save time and make it easier to self manage with a property management software like Hospitable and data research like AirDNA.

I like TurboTenant for it's simplicity (and I'm pretty sure it's still free..)I have a client who is a smart-computer-guy not unlike yourself, he has a system for analyzing deals in bulk. I

It gets into the furniture and permeates each room they hang out in.

Not that it matters much now but we do a "coming soon" after renovation but before/during furniture. 

She said she has had to pay out-of-pocket for exterminators and plumbers after getting no response to pest and leaky-pipe complaints to RAD’s property managers.Another tenant of a Mendenhall-led fund, Terry Golden, 41, said he has been dealing for about a year with a flooded basement that his property managers have neglected to repair at his 880-square-foot home in West Philadelphia’s Haddington section.His living and dining rooms are piled high with belongings he’d previously been storing in the basement: furniture, appliances, trophies from his days coaching little-league football.

@Jamie BanksI understand there are multiple parties: 1) displaced insurance policy holder (tenants)  2) ALE 3) The company that supplies all the furniture and install the washer and dryer. 

The cost of the furniture is tough up front-- you can rent furniture or go through FB marketplace.

STR can provide more cash (potentially), but its a high risk high reward strategy - if you invest in the furniture, staging, photos, and management or self manage, there is a lot of time and money invested.

We do have 1 mid term rental where we allow pets, but it's all hard surface flooring, fenced in backyard, and has pretty durable furniture.